Please rate my AWA essay

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Please rate my AWA essay

by manasnanu » Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:54 pm
The topic is " Schools should be responsible only for teaching academic skills and not for teaching ethical and social values."

My essay is as under:


The issue is both interesting and controversial one. On the one hand, there are many people who argue that schools should be responsible only for teaching academic skills while ,on the other hand , many believe that school should teach academic as well as ethical and social values. In this age when there is always a debate between materialistic pursuits and spiritual approach, this issue of complete education is a more pertinent question to evaluate. In this essay, I will argue that school should be responsible for teaching both academic skills and ethical and social values.

The main reason for this is that it is the responsibility of school to educate children so that they have an all round personality and become a part of the society. The ultimate aim of education is to develop the child as a person who can stand on his feet, work for livelihood, decide what is right or wrong for him and ultimately contribute to the society. For example, if a child is very good in academics but does not knows the importance of ethical values like honesty, integrity and compassion towards others , then he cannot be an all round personality.

To illustrate, there is now special emphasis given in business schools also to develop an attitude towards Corporate social responsibility in budding managers so that they can focus on their social responsibility in addition to just maximizing profits.

Another example to illustrate this point is about a primary school in India in which a child is forced to act as if he is blind or deaf or dumb or with similar disability and he has to perform all the routine functions for that day. By doing this, he can understand the difficulties encountered by physically challenged people of society who are blind or deaf or dumb. This develops in him a feeling of compassion towards fellow beings which no academic skills can teach him.

However, there can be counter-argument that school should just focus on academic skills and this work should be left for parents and society. I would like to point out that a child spends majority of his time in schools and he develops his attitude based on the experiences he has in his school everyday for the most formative years of his life. If he is made aware of the ethical and social virtues then it will reinforce the same virtues that he has been instructed at home. Combining academics with an element of teaching these important things will no way harm his learning procedure.

In nutshell, I have argued that schools should be responsible for teaching both academics and ethical and social values because a combination of all these makes a well – grown individual. There can be arguments for both the sides and many of these issues can never be resolved to everybody’ satisfaction. But the advantages of teaching both far outweigh just teaching academic skills .Hence, I reaffirm that schools should be responsible for teaching both academics and ethical and social values.
let me give the power of perseverance.............